CONSUMER
Digital Hub showcase brings tech to life
07-12-2004
by Deirdre McArdle
Exhibit7 has opened at the Digital Hub, showing technologies ranging from advanced biometrics to a unique "egg transporter" devised by local schoolchildren.
The exhibit, themed "Living", is open to the public from 7 December at the Digital Hub in Thomas Street and forms the latest part of the Diageo Liberties Learning Initiative, which aims to highlight emerging digital technologies.
The new technologies on show at the exhibition include the "Home of the Future", the delivery of 3G phone content from the Darklight Mobile Channel, and biometrics identification machines. The Digital Hub claims that these technologies and others on show at Exhibit7 have the potential to transform the way in which consumers interact with technological devices.
"Exhibit7 provides the public with an opportunity to view technologies and devices that could soon become as well used and familiar as SMS, PCs, and PDAs," said Philip Flynn, chief executive officer, the Digital Hub Development Agency.
The "Home of the Future" is the brainchild of the Waterford Institute of Technology Telecommunications Software and Systems Group. It aims to demonstrate to consumers how network technology will become an integral part of homes in the coming years and will ultimately become as important as a plumbing system.
The European Biometrics Forum will be demonstrating the Morphokiosk -- a biometrics machine which is used to gather and verify biometrics such as fingerprints and iris scans from consumers. Biometrics is generally regarded as futuristic technology but the organisers hope that this demonstration of the technology in practice should go some way towards making it more real.
A technology which was launched at the successful Darklight Film Festival, which was also held at the Digital Hub, will be demonstrated at Exhibit7. The technology, from Darklight Mobile Channel in association with Nokia, will enable the transmission of high-definition film and animation content to 3G-enabled handsets.
Other technologies on display will include the Media Portrait of the Liberties; this will deliver different historical narratives from the Liberties area of Dublin to users with PDA devices depending on where the recipient is standing in the area. Local school children will also demonstrate the Egg Transporter Challenge where they used robotics and a Luas-like system to transport an egg.
The primary aim of the exhibition, which will be running through to March 2005, is to provide the local community with an opportunity to experience first-hand the possibilities opened-up by technology, according to Michael Patten, group corporate relations director with Diageo Ireland.
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